Betting on Love
by sugarspun
Summary: Studious Lily Evans is obsessed with James Potter, much to her extreme frustration. At the same time, Sirius Black bets James Potter that he won't be able to charm the prudish girl into dating him. What will come of this sticky situation?
1. I Want You To Want Me

**Notes:**

**This story is just a little one-shot that I thought of last night whilst trying to get to sleep. It's totally AU and a bit random, but enjoy it anyway…**

**Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, blah, blah, blah**

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Lily Evans, impressive intellect (after all, she was a Ravenclaw) sat studying in the Library. For once, however, she wasn't actually concentrating on the Advanced Potion Making book in front of her. Instead, her startlingly green eyes were rather concentrated on a certain someone sitting four tables away from her.

As he leaned back in his chair and turned his head, she quickly covered her face with the book. She could never stand the shame of him knowing that she liked him… perhaps loved him?

Lily really didn't know when or why this ridiculous infatuation had started. Maybe it was the way that his roguishly messy hair was so attractive… or maybe it was the way his beautiful hazel eyes sparkled constantly…

Ugh. Lily was disgusted with herself. She had never been the sort of person to rave on about her latest crush, and now this? She really didn't know what to do with herself. After all, she knew very well that Potter had never spoken to her in his small but wonderful life…goodness, there she went again!

Lily quickly packed up her notes (all covered in J + L doodles, she noticed) and headed back to her dormitory. She lay down on her sky blue quilt and tried to think of a solution to this infatuation.

Asking him out to Hogsmeade was totally out of the question, and trying to get him to like her was impossible, as he had no idea who she was. So that left the one, miserable thing that Lily had known that she must do since she had begun to like Potter – popular, outstanding Quidditch player, gosh, he even had his own fan club! She must get over him, and soon.

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**Very short, I know…**

**Please review if you like it…**

**I hope you enjoy it, Smud, Smo, Smay – none of you knew anything about this!**

**Everyone else – enjoy your holidays.**

**Signing off**

**Smee**


	2. The Challenge

Story notes: This is a fic about how James and Lily finally came to be together – it is pretty consistent with the plot (or at least I think so) and I hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you can see here, etc…**

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James Potter and Sirius Black simultaneously lounged back in their chairs and grinned at each other. They had spent many nights in the common room perfecting that lounge, as both knew how important it was to their image. James quickly messed his already ridiculously spiky hair a little more and glanced around to see who had noticed. Assured of his popularity by the many looks from various girls around the Library, he turned back to his friend.

"So are you going to study while we're here?" James asked, unsure of how uncool this would be.

"Are you kidding? It's not like we actually need to study. We know all of it anyway, Prongs. I mean, you weren't planning on studying, were you?"

"No, of course not," James quickly assured Sirius. "So what are we gonna do?"

"Prongs, mate, I have decided that you need a new girl."

James had broken up with Melanie Baddock only a few weeks ago.

"Fine," he said reluctantly.

His friend's mischievous eyes began to sparkle with excitement, before James remembered something.

"Oh, and no Gryffindor girls. I am never dating a girl from my own house **ever** again!"

James was referring to his reason for breaking up with Melanie. She could literally keep talking with her mouth full of marbles underwater: James had tried this method of shutting her up. He remembered their first date with scary clarity.

"Hi, Melanie," James had said in the most charming voice that he could master. Charm was everything, as Sirius often said.

_"Hi James… oh, I was wondering, do you have a middle name? Because I do, my middle name is Henrietta, and I've only got one, but some people have three, you know? Like my friend, her name is Jude Rosanna Mayana Elisabeth Toronio, and that's a pretty long name, you know, I don't think I would like a name that long, I've worked out that any name over 19 letters is far too long and silly, even though my name is over that length…_

_She paused to draw breath for a second, and James managed to say,_

_"That's nice," before she began again._

_"You know, nice has got to be one of the most bland words in the Oxford Dictionary. Do you know what a dictionary is, if you're a pureblood? Well I don't really know how you could have not ever heard of a dictionary, because there's just so many in the muggle world, it's like never having heard of a spell book before. Ooh, have you heard that Miranda Goshawk (a very intelligent Ravenclaw in the year above them) wants to write a spell book? How exciting would it be to actually **know**__ someone who has written a spell book, huh? I don't think I could ever write a spell book, but you know…_

_The date had continued to go on like this, until four hours later, James had finally managed to distract Melanie with chocolate cake, and while she was eating it, slipped away. Unfortunately, because they were in the same house, Melanie had managed to track James down every day for a week until he began to constantly wear his invisibility cloak. He had finally broken up with her a few weeks ago and since then her friends had been glaring and paying him out ever since. He just didn't know how they could stand her at all!_

James's thoughts drifted back to the present, just as Sirius accepted the 'No Gryffindors' rule. James could almost see Sirius's mind thinking through the possibilities as he scanned the Library for ideas. Suddenly, Sirius's eyes stopped and James followed his gaze towards a flash of auburn hair. Lily Evans. What did he know about her?

She was a bookwormish Ravenclaw, that was for sure. She was rather pretty, he guessed, with her large almond-shaped eyes and dark auburn hair. Her skin was a bit too pale for his liking, though, and she was supposedly a major stickler for the rules. This was bound to be interesting.

Sirius was grinning. "I bet you 10 Galleons that you can't get Lily Evans to go out with you within the next year."

James weighed this up carefully. This would be a good challenge, he supposed. He estimated how long it would take him to win her over. Around two weeks, probably. Why on earth was Sirius extending the bet for a year?

"Why such a long time period?" he enquired.

"My guess is you'll need all the time you can get," Sirius replied with a wolfish grin that should have belonged on Remus's face, it was so savage.

"Fine then. Consider it done," James replied.

"Marauder's pact?" Sirius asked.

"Of course," said James. They both signed their Marauder nicknames on the parchment in front of them and Sirius carefully cast a spell on it.

"Good," he said after casting the spell. "Now it'll tell us as soon as you complete the bet – or exactly when it expires."

James smirked, knowing that it would take him a week or less to win Evans over. After all, which girls didn't like his charm and irresistible good looks? She might like him already. This was going to be one easy bet, that was for sure.

The two boys hoisted their bags up on their shoulders and strode out of the Library. James though he might as well start the 'Evans' project tomorrow morning at breakfast. Now it was time for a moonlit stroll out in the grounds with some of a few close friends.

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**I feel sooo proud that I actually updated! Smo, you've hopefully read this already, and smay, enjoy. Smuddie, I'm sooo sorry that I didn't tell you about it before (the others had me on author alert, that's how they found out…) and I hope you like the reference to you!**

**Hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to review :-)**

**Smee**


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